This invention relates to standard tennis balls.
A tennis ball consists generally of a spherical rubber core covered with a cloth having a felt surface. The surface of the felt offers wind resistance in flight and frictional contact with a tennis racket, so that the path of the ball can be controlled. Without this control, the game cannot be played satisfactorily.
The fabric felt is very important not only to the play performance of the tennis ball, but also to the cosmetic quality of the finished ball. If the fabric is properly engineered, it can meet all of the needs of the ball manufacturer which is a specific play characteristic for each level of player and court surface, as well as a ball relatively free from cosmetic defects, such as seam cracks, ghosting of edge adhesive, puckers, lumps, overlaps, irregular seams and visible 3rd cure rings after fluffing. A traditional method of making tennis felt covers has been with yarn and woven technologies subsequently napped and finished. An alternative technology has been the needle punch technology, whereby fibers oriented in layers from a non-woven cord and subsequently needled to entangle the fibers with or without a scrim for support. This fabric may or may not then be finished to try to make it more soft and conducive to covering a spherical core.
Presently, tennis balls have specific bounds, size and deformation qualities. Typically, tennis is played with a regulation tennis ball that can be white, yellow or pastel in color. In well lit conditions, the ball can easily be seen during play. Some outdoor tennis courts have lighting that permit play well into the evening. However, many courts do not include this lighting or the lighting is inadequate for good visibility. Therefore, the tennis ball becomes difficult to see at dusk or low light conditions, such as extremely cloudy weather.
Therefore, it is an object of our invention to provide a tennis ball for use in low light conditions.
The present invention is a tennis ball that is adapted to improve visibility of the ball in low light level conditions. Specifically, the ball includes a standard core having a felt-like material attached thereto. The felt-like material is preferably made of a woven wool material having luminescent fabric threads contained therein. The ball will have a glow-in-the-dark appearance for low level light conditions, that is, the ball will emit light. More specifically, our invention is a tennis ball having a core and luminescent fabric cover on its outer surface. The fabric may include a felt material of a synthetic and wool material. The synthetic portion of the felt has a phosphorescent component. The present invention is also a game incorporating the ball where a tennis court is provided having lines that include glow-in-the-dark pigment. Also, a tennis net and tennis racquets may be provided having glow-in-the-dark components.